A Wonder in the History of Language

"Syllabeary" – one of the 30 bears in the Cherokee, North Carolina Bear Collection is dedicated to Sequoyah

Whenever we linguists analyze a language with its reading and writing system, we usually do so in the context of an evolution. An evolution that took place over hundreds or thousands of years resulting in the languages and their written representations that we know in their current forms.

For example, the oldest writing system in the world still in use today - Chinese - is said to be more than 4000 years old. It is also the oldest known recorded language that was written on bones and shells of turtles. Not all writing systems come close to such an advanced age, but there is still so much to be considered when not only analyzing, but also learning a foreign language. We try to get to know some of the history, events, inventions, foreign influence that shaped not only modern day vocabulary, but also resulted in the way we spell words today. It helps us remember better, learn faster and understand at least some of the logic behind a given language system.

Now imagine something almost unimaginable. A person who cannot read or write in any language actually developing a written representation of a spoken language. As improbable as it sounds, it did happen and not that long ago, by historical standards. It was only in 1825 that the Cherokee Nation adopted a complete and effective writing and reading system developed by one of their tribe members. His name was Sequoyah and he was a Cherokee silversmith.

As a silversmith, Sequoyah had contacts with white settlers in his area. He became very much intrigued by the writing that those people used and he referred to it as "talking leaves." His fascination led to an idea, and it was around 1809 that he began working on a writing system for the Cherokee language. Initially, Sequoyah could not find adults willing to learn this new writing system, so he taught his daughter. He then traveled to Arkansas where some of the Cherokee tribe members had settled and started working on convincing them that the system in fact worked.  He conducted numerous demonstrations which involved asking individuals to say a word that he would write down and then calling his daughter to read those words back. This convincing took a several months, but eventually he succeeded in convincing the western Cherokee that he had created an effective reading and writing system that really worked.  Sequoyah then returned east with an envelope with a speech by one of the Arkansas Cherokee leaders. He read that speech to the eastern Cherokees which was enough to convince them to also learn the system. So, as we said earlier in this post, it was in 1825 that the Cherokee Nation officially adopted Sequoyah's system.  This was the first and only time in recorded history that a person belonging to a non-literate people created an effective writing system independently. Below is an image of a chart with the Cherokee syllabary. 

 ***Contributed by Gosia.  Check out her popular blog at http://planetgosia.blogspot.com